retronym

ret·ro·nym

R r

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [re-truh-nim]
- /ˈrɛ trə nɪm/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [re-truh-nim]
- /ˈrɛ trə nɪm/

Definitions of retronym word

noun retronym a term coined in modification of an original term that was used alone (as acoustic guitar instead of guitar ) to distinguish it from a term referring to a later development (as electric guitar ). Other examples of retronyms are snail mail and analog watch . 1
noun Definition of retronym in Technology (jargon) A term invented to distinguish a subclass of things from new members of the superclass, where the distinction was previously not necessary, since the old subclass had been all there was of the superclass. For example, the retronyms "snail mail" and "paper mail" were coined by those for who "mail" was likely to mean electronic mail. While the English language in general has a few retronyms ("whole milk", "snow skiing", "acoustic guitar"), hacker jargon is necessarily (at points capriciously) rich in retronyms, e.g. plaintext, natural language, impact printer, eyeball search, biological virus. 1
noun retronym a new word coined for an existing or older thing to distinguish it from something newer or more recent 0

See all 3 definitions of retronym

Information block about the term

Parts of speech for Retronym

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Retronym

retronym popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 44% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 70% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

retronym usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer